Economy & Equity

How was BSNL KILLED (strategically) by the Powerful people of India? : BSNL Tragedy Case Study https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlgk8XXHWuA 
23 April 2022

For the past 1.5 years, we have been hearing the news about Govt’s plans to shut down BSNL, and ever since we started following the news, we have always seen BSNL incurring 1000s of crores of losses every single year, infact in the past 10 years, BSNL has incurred a combined loss of more than 80,000cr. and considering the case of Air India and govt bureaucracy in general, we by default assume that BSNL is also one of the ill-run businesses that the govt just can't handle isn't it!!

Well, guess what guys, in FY21 while the market went crazy to see Reliance jio generate a profit of Rs 12,537 crore, very few of us know that there was a time when BSNL generated a profit of 10,183cr! and from 2001–2008 Bsnl had generated a cumulative profit of 46668 Cr which was more than the next 3 telecom operators combined and that too in spite of all the subsidized schemes that it rolled out. and not just that it once had a market share of 70% and literally acted as the backbone of Indian telecommunication.

So The question is What exactly went wrong with BSNL that it suddenly went from being a jewel of India to a sick company in less than a decade?

Was it yet another govt mishandling or was it deliberately paralyzed by the private sector?  and most importantly, as citizens of India, what are the lessons that we need to from the Tragic downfall of BSNL?

“They want to let BSNL die”: The rot inside India’s government-owned telecom firms https://qz.com/india/1936622/why-indias-bsnl-mtnl-are-losing-out-to-firms-like-reliance-jio/ November 23, 2020

“We have also known for a long time that our old landline copper cables need to be upgraded to fibre cables, but we have not been given the budgets,” said Shirke, the section supervisor.

But the most glaring disadvantage for BSNL and MTNL is the fact that they are still stuck with 3G technology, while a large number of consumers have rapidly moved on to 4G since 2016. “The government has not allowed us to get a 4G license even though all our private sector competitors provide 4G,” said John. “So naturally we are losing customers we cannot blame them for choosing better and faster services.” In the Rs70,000 crore revival package approved for the companies last year, nearly Rs 24,000 crore was meant to be for allocating 4G spectrum to BSNL and MTNL. A tender for buying 4G equipment from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE was finalised, but in July, BSNL was forced to cancel the tender. After 20 Indian soldiers were killed during a stand-off with the Chinese army in June, the central government barred public sector companies from striking any deals with Chinese companies. “But private companies were not stopped from such deals. How is this fair?” said Shirke.

The combined impact of outdated services and lower staff will inevitably mean a drop in customer base and even bigger financial losses, say unions. “The government is giving encouragement to private players in the industry, but letting its own organisation stagnate,” said Dinesh Mistry, the assistant general secretary of the National Union of BSNL Workers. “Every decision that the government has taken has been against the interests of MTNL-BSNL,” said Arvind Sawant, the head of the MTNL Kamgar Sangh and also a member of Parliament from the Shiv Sena. “They want to let BSNL die.”

Behind BSNL and MTNL’s poor services: A retirement scheme, staff shortages and delayed 4G https://scroll.in/article/977512/behind-bsnl-and-mtnls-poor-services-a-retirement-scheme-staff-shortages-and-delayed-4g 
Users across the country are giving up their MTNL or BSNL connections as the loss-making public sector companies struggle to stay afloat. 
Aarefa Johari
Nov 19, 2020 ·

Modinomics & LIC : डूबती कपनियों की मददगार एलआईसी को भी डूबाने की तैयारी.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7wBtdwGRcg 
sSep 10, 2021

Jagrut Bhatt

Sir, AIIEA , LIC employees' union is the biggest trade union in LIC having more than 80% membership of Class 3 & 4 employees.This union is fighting tooth & nail against LIC IPO, privatization and opening of Life insurance sector to FDI.
But like farmers and other class-agitations, the government is totally ignoring the union's opposition and agitation. This is the situation.

G.C. Mathur

The trade unions in these PSUs must rise to protect their rights of protecting their livelihood politically. This is the time they realise that they are voters and must assert themselves as citizens of Indian democracy.

Privatisation: Centre May Sell its Stake in Central Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank https://gaurilankeshnews.com/privatisation-centre-may-sell-its-stake-in-central-bank-of-india-and-indian-overseas-bank/ Earlier, in May the government had given the in-principle approval for the disinvestment and transfer of management control in IDBI bank.

https://gaurilankeshnews.com/save-public-sector-building-a-mass-movement-against-privatisation/

How to destroy the Indian Economy? Poonam Gupta and Arvind Panagaraiya prescribe  By Thomas Franco | August 2, 2022 https://www.cenfa.org/how-to-destroy-the-indian-economy-poonam-gupta-and-arvind-panagaraiya-prescribe/ Poonam Gupta and Arvind Panagaraiya prescribe   the solution they give is to privatise all banks without looking at the failure of private banks which are only for profit. Between 1947 and 1951, 205 private banks went out of business. Between 1951 and 1967, 476 private banks went out of business. Between 1969 and 2008, 36 banks were taken over by other banks, most of them by public sector banks. In the US, 512 private banks failed between 2008 and 2020. Global Trust Bank, Centurion Bank, and the Yes Bank had to be saved by public sector banks only. ..

Deposits and credit have grown because of the public sector banks. But, due to the merger, prompt corrective action and the threat of privatisation, the gains earned are being taken away. This has accelerated after 2014 during which period the authors have been at the helm of the affairs and they are the ones to be blamed. While mentioning the rise of private banks, the authors have carefully avoided the takeover of failed private banks by public banks from 1969 onwards. Again most of the mergers were with public banks to save the failing private banks. The new private banks like ICICI Bank, AXIS Bank, and HDFC Bank which are the largest private banks with government support are not mentioned by the authors. When there was a problem with ICICI it was the SBI which saved it. Even in future, these same experts will ask the government to save the private banks which fail due to mismanagement and fraud. That’s what happened in the US too.

In short, as per the authors, all banks should be privatised, starting with Indian Bank, Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank. The government should not have any control, CVC should not investigate, RBI should become a mega ruler (who will dance to the tune of the political bosses as the directors have no accountability) and Corporates should have the right to run banks like they run NBFCs and foreigners should be welcomed to own our banks as they will bring innovation.

The small household depositors who have 62.63% of the total deposits and 81.17% of the savings deposits will lose their deposits over a period of time. 14,045 big borrowers who have Rs 35,12,801 crores (29.5% of all credit) of the outstanding loan can default and ruin the banks. Small borrowers will go to NBFCs and MFIs, will pay huge interest, default and lose their assets. Of course, there will be no reservation in employment. Basically, the economy will collapse. IMF and World Bank will rejoice. Ambadani or someone will become the official or unofficial dictator. Poonam and Panagaraiya will live happily abroad.